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Hungary
Race17h 14m
Kimi Antonelli said missing first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix to meet Mercedes’ mandatory young-driver FP1 quota was “probably not” the right call, after he struggled for balance and confidence in qualifying. Antonelli said: "I mean, for sure, I think I picked probably not the best race to miss FP1, because the conditions are much more challenging than anticipated. The car is much more difficult to drive, so for sure, it was not ideal."
Charles Leclerc says he expects Mercedes to be “in the fight” in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix even though Lando Norris looked strongest in qualifying at the Hungaroring. Leclerc said: "Based on today, Lando seems to be very, very strong. So, I'll say Lando. But if you look over the course of the season, the Mercedes has always been up there. So I do not doubt that they will be in the fight tomorrow as well."
Alex Albon said he is having to drive the Williams “like a race lap” in qualifying because the car’s balance is changing so much, after he failed to get out of Q1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Albon said: "It's hard to understand what the car is doing; it changes every lap, every corner. It doesn't feel… it feels like I'm not delivering any good laps because I go into every corner and I don't know what the car is going to do. I'm kind of having to drive the car not like a qualifying lap; I'm having to drive it like a race lap, because if you push closer to a qualifying lap it will bite you."
Carlos Sainz says he does not believe Williams’ upcoming B-spec car will deliver the one second per lap he thinks the team needs to fight for points on merit this season. Sainz said: "It is very difficult for us to score points. It is almost impossible to score points with the lack of performance we have. That doesn't mean we cannot score points in the odd race where a lot of things happen, but the reality is that we don't have the performance, and when the B-spec car arrives, I don't believe it will give us as much as one second per lap, which is what we need to get into points contention."
Lewis Hamilton said Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix was “probably” going to be a race of damage limitation as he awaited a stewards’ decision over an incident with Oscar Piastri after qualifying second at the Hungaroring. Hamilton said: "For the lap, not so much. It is what it is. It happens. It's more the aftermath. I don't know what's going to happen, but tomorrow's probably going to be damage limitation."
Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur said the team was to blame for Lewis Hamilton’s three-place grid penalty in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying after Hamilton blocked Oscar Piastri at the start of the McLaren driver’s final push lap. Vasseur said: "We told him [Piastri was coming], but far too late. If there is a mistake, it's our mistake."
George Russell said a water leak sprayed his tyres and ruined his final lap in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, before Mercedes instructed him to stop the car. Russell said: "It didn't really affect anything, although there was a water leak and we saw on the tyre temperatures that water was spraying on the tyres during my last lap, so my last lap was rubbish. I think there's maybe a reason for it because it was like a water pistol being sprayed at the tyres, which doesn't necessarily give you more grip."
Liam Lawson says overtaking in the Hungarian Grand Prix will be "basically impossible" as he tries to recover from qualifying 11th. Lawson said: "I just drove really badly in Q2; it is a shame as the car has been very, very good this weekend. We had a good long run, so hopefully we have a fast race car, but it is basically impossible to overtake, so it is going to be tough."
Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin's major upgrade package made it feel like "a different Qualifying" as he reached Q2 for the first time in 2026 at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso said: "It was a different weekend, different Qualifying. We felt that we could fight a little bit more and we could influence the final result of Qualifying if we made a perfect lap or a perfect set-up. That adrenaline when you close the visor and you go into the lap, it was missed in the last few events – we were on the last row of the grid, whatever we were doing on the car. It was nice to go back to that feeling, and hopefully more to come in the next few races."
Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix after the stewards ruled he did not slow sufficiently for local yellow flags in qualifying at the final corner, where Max Verstappen was stopped in the run-off. Antonelli, who qualified fourth, will now start seventh and also received a penalty point on his licence.
Charles Leclerc admitted his pace "was never to the level" of Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, saying he could not find an answer in Turns 1 and 12 at the Hungaroring. Leclerc said: "I'm a bit disappointed. Disappointed mostly because I didn't find a solution for Turn 1 and Turn 12 all today, really. In FP3 already I was struggling with Turn 1 and Turn 12, and I was still losing three-tenths or something like this in Q3 in Turn 1 and Turn 12... But the pace was never to the level of Lewis, so it was all about trying to maximise today."
Max Verstappen said Red Bull’s car was “a joke” and “really crazy” in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix after he took sixth, half a second off pole-sitter Lando Norris. Verstappen said: "The car just kept getting worse and worse lap after lap, so the more laps I did on this more and more difficult to put a lap together, and for tomorrow as well we need to fix that because the car is not drivable like this, as you can see in the front of the corner, I mean, you just turn in and the car is like non-existent in the rear, so it's really crazy."
Max Verstappen says he is “already past” feeling desperate after a difficult qualifying session at the Hungaroring in which he said Red Bull could see its aerodynamics “deteriorating” in the data and he will start Sunday’s race sixth. Verstappen said: "No, no, desperate? That word doesn't even exist for me anymore. I'm already past that stage. We just let it go and try again tomorrow."
Lewis Hamilton has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix after the stewards found he impeded Oscar Piastri in qualifying. Hamilton was judged to have been “travelling at a significantly reduced speed on the racing line” into Turn 1 as Piastri approached on a push lap, forcing the McLaren driver to abort. The Ferrari driver drops from second to fifth on the grid, promoting team-mate Charles Leclerc onto the front row alongside poleman Lando Norris. Hamilton said: “I had no idea he was coming.”
Lando Norris says the Hungaroring surface is still breaking up in places despite Friday night repairs, making it difficult for drivers to find a consistent feel in key corners at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Norris said: "Also, because the track is pretty broken up in places and there are a lot of different patches of tarmac in Turn 1 and Turn 12, I struggled to get a consistent feeling of what was best or what the car was doing every time in these kinds of corners."
Fernando Alonso said his Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying result was an "important" lift for Aston Martin after the team’s first major upgrade of the year helped him reach Q2 for the first time in the 2026 season. Alonso said: "It was important. Definitely, it was important for everyone in the team as it has been a tough period in both factories. Having the deficit that we had in terms of performance in the first half of the year, and this package obviously didn't change many positions, but it changed a lot the momentum of everyone in the factory. It's not anymore that we are chasing something that we don't know."
George Russell said a water leak caused his Mercedes to stop on track at Turn 1 at the end of qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Russell said: "We lost water pressure and had a water leak, so when I was stopped on track, the car was leaking all over the place. We don't know where it's coming from. Fingers crossed, it doesn't affect anything for tomorrow."
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